The next right-wing government needs to end the presumption that officials’ every need must be accommodated, forcing departments to record who is working when, and making clear that the most senior civil servants are paid to be available when government needs them.
Today’s powder-keg Britain demands focus on resolving today’s problems. Social conditions in 1948 are irrelevant. The public wants to be on the side of Police officers. For the country’s sake, the Police need to stay present.
Conservatives have been eager to champion startups, small businesses, AI firms and tech entrepreneurs, but philanthropists who want to give back to their local communities are often welcome behind closed doors yet rarely backed at the national level.
The Russian state is – probably – heading towards a reckoning. But it is a fool’s errant to predict when and where that might be, or what it may look like.
Most bizarrely, Brits believe the NHS generates a 34 per cent profit but It is, of course, not profitable in any way. And its sacred nature generates a consensus that anything else would be a moral transgression. That attitude pervades throughout public services.
The Public Sector Equality Duty has been a complete disaster. It’s long past time that we restore equality before the law in its place.
A fair system should not trap people in decades of repayments while their balances grow. It should set interest at a reasonable level, protect students from retrospective rule changes and make sure the cost of higher education is shared fairly between graduates and the wider country.
Just as we have the criminal law, and a police force to protect us from criminals, we need to decide as a nation what we want and do not want from social media, then set up an expert enforcement body – an algorithm patrol – and specialist court to see that we get it.
We once again have to think about defence requirements, national capabilities and strategic strengths. This is what Conservatives used to do. We are rediscovering that Conservative tradition.
When a pub closes, we do not simply lose a business. We lose somewhere birthdays are celebrated and football dissected, where neighbours become friends and people who might otherwise never meet end up discussing issues from politics to gardening to the best local takeaway.
Contrary to his parents’ wishes, the murder has become a political – and divisive – issue. Naturally there is close scrutiny of how the police acted and about wider police culture. But it has also revealed more about the character, temperament and political strategies of some leading politicians.
A high-trust society requires a shared moral language that knits us together and a common unifying culture. In parts of our country, we have a low-trust society, and multiculturalism is pulling apart our social fabric; and in such a society, justice cannot exist for much longer.
In a world where narrow waterways carry the essentials of modern living, the risks associated with chokepoints can no longer be treated as peripheral. For British households, the consequences are immediate and tangible.
The question about whether Britain is broken or not is then effectively moot. Few dispute that there are serious problems that need solving. What matters is what they are and how we solve them. The ‘what’ is easy, the ‘how’ is somewhat trickier.
We are already years behind in properly and adequately funding defence for the challenges we face. Deferring comes with real costs to both our armed forces and the companies that supply them. It is also revelatory: if governments want things to happen, they need more than ambition.